Angie Fox - ADS 01 - The Accidental Demon Slayer

I finally understood why Dimitri had sought me out and why he couldn’t tell me the truth right away. The other day on the side of the road, I wasn’t ready to hear about the fifth-level demon who’d taken his family. I didn’t want to know I was destined to face that demon or that I’d lose someone too. I wasn’t ready for my future or for Dimitri. But that had changed.

“I’m going to pass out.” I sat on the side of the road with my head between my knees. The sunrise sent a tumble of red and orange streaks across the sky. I’d made Dimitri pull over in Tupelo, Mississippi. We had to keep moving. I knew that. But my arms felt so weak, my body so tired, I was afraid I’d fly off the bike like a tiddlywink if Dimitri hit one more pothole.

“When was the last time you ate?” he asked, rifling around in his backpack.

“Not a good idea,” I said, my stomach threatening to riot. “I’m just…exhausted.”

“Come on.” Dimitri gathered me up in his arms. Yum. It felt too good. His warm, masculine scent nearly undid me. But as utterly content as I felt at the moment, I couldn’t, I wouldn’t go back to that bike.

“Oh no,” I said, muffled in his shirt as he strode toward the Harley. “Let me die on the side of the road. I’m not cut out to be a biker babe.”

“Hold on,” he said, placing me back on the hog. “We gotta get you out of the open. I noticed a safe spot a few miles back. We’ll go slow, okay?”

I nodded. “Where are you taking me?” Did he know of another hideout nearby? If werewolves ran Shoney’s, perhaps a dragon BBQ joint would be just the spot—or maybe Dimitri knew of a Denny’s run by leprechauns. I’d even be open to a mermaid water park. Anything to get me off this bike for an hour or two. “Where in the world of weird creatures are you taking me?”

“Motel 6.”

I never would have thought of Motel 6 as a great place to take a break from werewolf fights and black soul possession, but we sure could have done worse. The bored teenager who checked us in was too busy chomping her gum to notice the switch stars I’d forgotten to take off my belt. She simply twirled a Kool Aid–red lock of hair and informed us we had a room at the back of the hotel, second floor.

This place was the Taj Mahal compared to the trailer I’d shared with Ant Eater. Much cuter company too, I mused, as Dimitri tossed his backpack onto the king-size bed.

Wait.

Dimitri was assuming a heck of a lot.

I eyed the humongous bed with its quilted seashell comforter. “Planning to sleep in the bathtub, are you?”

Dimitri flashed a smile that was pure sin. “If you’d been paying attention to the clerk instead of trying to hide your switch stars behind the gumball machine, you’d have heard for yourself. They only have kings left.”

“Yeah, well don’t get fresh.”

Just my luck he listened.

Dimitri didn’t try to peek when I took a shower, refused to look when I climbed under the covers and allowed me to sleep unmolested for the next fourteen hours.

Jerk.

My head felt hazy when I woke up to find him propped up in bed next to me. He held a small object in his hand, like a pocket watch. Inside glowed the image of two girls, asleep.

His sisters .

It hurt to think about everything he’d lost. All the same, I was glad he finally trusted me with the truth about why he’d hunted me down and why he wanted Vald dead.

I was about to ask him about his sisters when another thought hit me like a riptide. I sat up so fast I nearly knocked the thing out of his hand. “I know where the witches are,” I gasped.

The Dixie Queen was moored in a deserted inlet of the Yazoo River, just south of the Tallahatchie. Before that moment, if anyone had asked me to find the Yazoo, I wouldn’t have been able to point it out on a map. Now I knew exactly how to get there. I didn’t know how I knew, I just did. Every one of the Red Skulls had made it. Thank goodness.

Dimitri shoved the object in his pocket. “Yeah, I know too,” he said, somewhat annoyed. “Ant Eater got me on my cell.”

Of course.

Speaking of slaying fifth-level demons, we had to get moving. “Why didn’t you wake me up?”

“You need all the strength you can get.” He gazed at me intently. “A window will open, Lizzie. Tomorrow. It’s time to face Vald.”

Holy schniekies. A little warning would have been nice. I didn’t even like pop quizzes in school, much less a surprise ultimate face-off with an evil demon. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

“You were throwing switch stars in the dirt.”

Yeah, yeah, and beheading the Shoney’s Big Boy. I didn’t need a reminder of how much I’d screwed up.

“Adding a deadline didn’t seem like the best approach,” Dimitri said matter-of-factly.

Truth be told, I was glad. Grandma needed help, the quicker the better.

“Vald has been drawing strength from your grandma, and from the remains of my family. But drawing energy is like sucking soda from a straw. Every once in a while, you have to take a breath. Tomorrow at midnight, Vald will take that breath. He’ll be open, more vulnerable. It’s the best time to strike.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding one too many times. “How do you know all this?”

“Everyone knows,” he said, too matter-of-fact for my taste.

“Oh sure. Why not?” Everyone but me.

He shrugged. “Your grandma saw it in her vision before she was taken. Scarlet was there.” So Scarlet knew and Dimitri and the coven. Heck, I’m sure Pirate had even heard of it by now.

“Fine,” I said. We were going to deal with this. Later. In the meantime, “What’s the plan?”

“We rest. Prepare. Tomorrow morning, we’ll head out and meet the coven at the Dixie Queen . We’re about four hours out.” He checked his watch absently. “They’re expecting us at noon. We’ll discuss strategy. Then we face him and win.”

Or lose. No, don’t think of what could happen if we fail .

In less than twenty-four hours, I’d be facing off with a fifth-level demon. My training had led me to this moment, to tomorrow’s showdown. I hoped I was up to it. Grandma deserved more than to die in the second layer of hell. Dimitri’s family deserved to be avenged. And afterward, I deserved to sleep for about a year. It blew my mind to realize that if I actually survived this, I’d be free to go home, to resume my life, to teach my preschool class. I wondered if I could ever go back. I hoped I could.

I dug my hand into the pocket of my khakis and found the jeweled griffin hairpin Dimitri had given me. I smoothed it into my hair.

Dimitri caught my hands and held them in his, palms up. My breath caught in my throat. Black marks singed my hands and fingers where I’d touched the black souls.

He brought my hands to his lips and kissed each black stain. “I thought I’d lost you back there,” he said, lingering over my fingertips. “I would never have forgiven myself.”

I nodded, fascinated as his lips and teeth grazed my skin. He was my protector. Yow. Who was going to protect me from him?

“You are so damned dangerous,” he said, his mouth sinking into mine.

I responded with everything I had. Oh, yes. This was exactly how it should be. I wrapped my arms around him, threaded my fingers through his hair.

He eased his rough-and-tumble demon-butt-kicking body over me and I squirmed under his delicious weight. “Hot for teacher” didn’t even begin to cover it. I was no slut puppy, but serve up a sexy protector, a couple of near-death experiences and—oh my word was that him on my thigh? A girl can only resist so much.

I tore my mouth from his. “Back off now,” I said,fighting the urge to wriggle against the hard ridge jutting from underneath his jeans, “or I’m not responsible for my actions.”